News

Staggers

Published 12 April 13

Hypomagnesaemia, or staggers, occurs when the input of magnesium
is exceeded by the output, as a cow cannot store magnesium and
relies on her daily dietary intake. Staggers can become a real
issue in the spring when rapidly growing grass can have very low
levels of magnesium. Add this to high milk outputs and the cow can
quickly develop a magnesium deficiency, warns DairyCo extension
officer Nicola Fair.

Obviously prevention is better than cure but if you do see the
clinical signs of staggers it is important to act fast. Look
out for cows that are twitching, or seem unsteady on their feet.
Affected animals can often be hyper excitable which can make them
dangerous to handle, so take care. Clinical signs of an acute case
can progress quickly and often the animal will just be found as a
'sudden death'.

Cows that show these signs need treatment immediately to prevent
them deteriorating further, talk to your vet to come up with an
appropriate treatment protocol.

Some calcium products for the treatment of milk fever also
contain low levels of magnesium and can be given very slowly in the
vein but black toped straight magnesium should only be given under
the skin. Its black for a reason, too much magnesium too quickly
will kill the cow you are trying to save!

If you think you may have cattle at risk of staggers talk to
your vet to ensure you have the appropriate products in your
medicine cabinet.

It's important to take steps to control the condition by
supplementing magnesium either through your concentrate feed or
direct into a TMR ration. Your feed supplier or nutritionist should
guide you on the appropriate inclusion, but 60g/cow/day of calcined
magnesite, somewhere in the ration, is the usual
standard.

If you're feeding calcined magnesite as part of a TMR it should
be well mixed. The flour grade is likely to be more palatable and
better absorbed, but can be difficult to handle and it is
unpalatable without a carrier. Including the calcined magnesite in
the parlour concentrate may be more straight forward if TMR feeding
is not practical.

Avoid relying on a mineral block as there can be a huge
variation in how much individual cows use them, leaving some cow
still at risk of staggers

Adding magnesium chloride to the water may also be an option. It
must be well mixed and not allowed to become too concentrated.
There may also be problems with grazing cows on wet days as the cow
will get most of their water from the pasture and drink less from
the trough, therefore getting less magnesium.

To further minimise the problem management such as avoiding
potash application in the spring is recommended, as this can lead
to 'easy' uptake by the plant, offsetting the magnesium level in a
rapidly growing grass plant.

Don't forget that slurry has high levels of potash so early
doses on grazing can exaggerate the potential risk. Also
trying to minimise sudden ration changes and supplementary feed
reductions are also good practices to adopt.